IS A FULL TRANSFORMATION TO A HIGHER ENERGY PERFORMANCE LEVEL OF RECENTLY BUILT MASSIVE BRICK HOUSES IN FLANDERS FEASIBLE BOTH ARCHITECTURALLY AND ECONOMICALLY?
BART JANSSENS1, AVIEL VERBRUGGEN2, MOHAMED AL MARCHOHI2
1 Artesis College of Architectural Sciences – Henry Van de Velde Institute , www.artesis.be
2 University of Antwerp, Department Environment, Technology and Technology Management
ABSTRACT
Because of climate change targets, energy use in buildings needs to be reduced significantly. At an accelerated pace, national and international building regulations are becoming stricter. These regulations cover both new construction and renovation projects. When houses that are being built today do not own the highest possible energy performance level, it is likely that they must undergo an energy upgrading in order to meet stricter future standards.
This research deals with the architectural and economic aspects of upgrading recently built detached massive brick houses in Flanders (Belgium) to a higher energy performance level. For representing real building practices, consecutive upgrading steps from lower to higher energy performance levels, are considered.
We conclude that a full energy transformation is financially not feasible due to the irrevocability characteristics of energy efficiency investments. Instead, in order to create houses that are ‘future-proof’, energy performance investments should be implemented from the start.
